WILLIAM SOTO1, C. PHOEBE LOSTROH2, AND MICHELE K. NISHIGUCHI1. 1New Mexico State University, Department of Biology,Box 30001, MSC. 3AF, Las ...
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PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO STRESS IN THE VIBRIONACEAE WILLIAM SOTO1, C. PHOEBE LOSTROH2, AND MICHELE K. NISHIGUCHI1 1 New Mexico State University, Department of Biology,Box 30001, MSC 3AF, Las Cruces, NM, 88003-8001 USA; 2Colorado College, Department of Biology 14 E Cache La Poudre Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903 USA
1. The Vibrionaceae 1.1. A GENERAL DESCRIPTION The family Vibrionaceae (Domain Bacteria, Phylum Proteobacteria, Class Gammaproteobacteria) is comprised of mostly motile gram-negative chemoorganotrophs, possessing at least one polar flagellum (Farmer III and Janda, 2005; Thompson and Swings, 2006). Vibrios are facultative anaerobes, having both respiratory and fermentative metabolisms, and the mol% G+C of the DNA is 38-51% (Farmer III and Janda, 2005). Cells are usually 1 µm in width and 2-3 µm in length, and most are oxidase positive. The vast majority of vibrios require Na+ for growth and survival, usually 0.5-3% NaCl for optimum growth. Additionally, most species are susceptible to the vibriostatic agent 0/129 (Thompson and Swings, 2006). In recent years, a twochromosome configuration, one large and the other small (both circular), has been discovered to be a universal feature for all members of the Vibrionaceae (Iida and Kurokawa, 2006). The Vibrionaceae are ubiquitously distributed throughout aquatic habitats, freshwater and marine waters (Madigan and Martinko, 2006), including rivers, estuaries, lakes, coastal and pelagic oceanic waters, the deep sea, and saltern ponds (Urakawa and Rivera, 2006). Although as many as eight genera have been assigned to the Vibrionaceae, the two most specious are Vibrio and Photobacterium (Thompson and Swings, 2006). A third genus, Salinivibrio is worthy of mention due to its unusual ability to grow in a wide range of salinity (0-20% NaCl; Ventosa, 2005) and temperature (550°C; Bartlett, 2006) (refer to Table 1.). Numerous species are pathogenic and cause disease in aquatic animals and humans (Farmer III et al., 2005), Vibrio cholerae being the most notorious example as the causative agent of cholera (Colwell, 2006). V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus can also cause severe illness in humans as a result of consuming contaminated seafood (Hulsmann et al., 2003; Wong and Wang, 2004). Furthermore, every year V. harveyi (Owens and Busico-Salcedo, 2006), V. anguillarum (Miyamoto and Eguchi, 1997; Crosa et al., 2006), and V. parahaemolyticus (Austin, 2006) cause substantial economic losses to the aquaculture industry worldwide.
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Study of the Vibrionaceae also has applications in ecoysystem health and conservation biology, especially in light of increasing contemporary concerns about human-induced global climate change. It is already clear that temperature is an abiotic factor that is critical for numerous vibrio symbioses (as discussed below), and it is possible that anthropogenic increases in the prevailing ocean temperature could have profound effects on ecosystems mediated partly through alterations in these symbioses. For example, V. shiloi is a pathogen of corals that causes coral bleaching at warmer ocean temperatures such as those expected to prevail in the future (Banin et al., 2003). For these reasons, the Vibrionaceae has galvanized tremendous basic and applied research. Increasing interest in recent years in the utilization of the genes responsible for light production from the bioluminescent bacteria V. fischeri for developing bioreporter monitoring and biosensor technologies illustrates this (Ripp et al., 2006). 1.2. SYMBIOSES WITHIN VIBRIONACEAE Vibrio species not only occur as free-living members of the bacterioplankton but also regularly form symbioses—relationships between two or more organisms that encompass parasitisms, mutualisms, and commensalisms—with other aquatic organisms, including fish, invertebrates, algae, and other microorganisms (Nishiguchi and Nair, 2003; Meibom et al., 2005). Within marine animals, Vibrio species are commonly found in the digestive tract and on their surfaces, including skin and chitinous exoskeletons (Urakawa and Rivera, 2006). Host-associated vibrios are provided with a microenvironment rich in nutrients and organic molecules compared to the surrounding seawater (Urakawa and Rivera, 2006). Hence, the vibrio population within or on the host is often several orders of magnitude higher than in the oceanic water column (102 cells/ml). V. cholerae reach a population level as high as 104-106 cells/copepod, while V. halioticoli can reach a population size at 106-109 cells/g of fresh gut in abalones (Haliotis discus hannai; Sawabe et al., 1995). Although some vibrios are pathogenic towards their hosts, numerous Vibrio species are part of the normal microflora of animals living in the ocean, such as oysters (Olafsen et al., 1993), blue crabs (Davis and Sizemore, 1982), sharks (Grimes et al., 1985), and hydroids (Stabili et al., 2006). The metabolic, physiological, and genetic traits permitting the Vibrionaceae to attach, colonize, proliferate in, and circumvent the defense mechanisms of their hosts to cause disease are undoubtedly homologous to those responsible for the establishment of mutualisms. These traits have a common and ancient evolutionary origin, giving rise to many different independent lineages (Nishiguchi and Nair, 2003). In some instances, vibrios are intimate symbionts providing such an essential role that their hosts would be unable to survive in nature without them (Douglas, 2002). These roles include protection from pathogens, enhanced metabolic function, elevated environmental tolerance, or nutrient acquisition. The symbiosis between V. halioticoli and abalones (Haliotis) is one such example. In this case, the bacterial partner serves in alginate degradation, a brown algal polysaccharide the abalone consumes while grazing, and provides the gastropod host with an important energy source (Sawabe, 2006). Another example is V. fischeri, which is a bioluminescent symbiont of sepiolid squids and monocentrid fishes, and benefits these animals through a behavior termed counterillumination, allowing the hosts to conceal themselves from potential predators or prey (Jones and Nishiguchi, 2004). Considering host interactions partaken by vibrio
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bacteria encompass the entire symbiosis continuum, from pathogen to indispensable microbial mutualist (Nishiguchi, 2001; Nishiguchi and Jones, 2004), a paradigm shift is emerging where some Vibrio species are considered beneficial and may have potential in the development of probiotics for commercially important aquaculture animals (Verschuere et al., 2000). 2. Stress regulation 2.1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION Despite the fact that biologists uniformly recognize some environments as stressful, attempts to unequivocally define or quantify stress are difficult (Lenski and Bennett, 1993). The Oxford Dictionary of Ecology defines stress as, “A physiological condition produced by excessive pressures that are detrimental to an organism” (Allaby 2005), while the Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics states a stress is “…Any environmental factor that restricts growth and reproduction of an organism or population or causes a potentially adverse change in an organism or biological system; any factor acting to disturb the equilibrium of a system” (Lincoln et al., 1998). For many evolutionary biologists and ecologists, a more satisfying definition is one treating stress as any environmental factor (biotic or abiotic) reducing fitness (Lenski and Bennett, 1993). “Stress,” broadly considered, must also include any biotic or abiotic factors that fluctuate, and thus require organisms to adapt to them physiologically in order to survive. Most bacteria encounter such stressful changes in the environment, including the Vibrionaceae. They grow and survive in a multitude of habitats while possessing various lifestyles: aquatic sediments, fresh and brackish waters, oceans, symbionts of host organisms, saprophytes on detritus, and as free-living cells (Nishiguchi and Jones, 2004; Urakawa and Rivera, 2006; Dunlap et al., 2007). These different environments and lifestyles should not be viewed as static and permanent but rather as transient and cyclical (Urakawa and Rivera, 2006; Dunlap et al., 2007), where microbes migrate between each habitat while encountering stressful conditions (McDougald and Kjelleberg, 2006). These different habitats vary in a myriad of abiotic and biotic factors; consequently, the Vibrionaceae have evolved diverse physiological responses to stress and variable environments. Previous research has shown fluctuating environments and stressors (e.g., oxygen and reactive forms, extreme salinities/temperatures) have important influences in symbiosis (Xu et al., 2004). For instance, a temperature downshift from 26°C to 18°C caused dramatic changes in the microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract in red hybrid tilapia, with tremendous proliferation of Vibrio spp. and a concomitant decrease in Flavobacterium (LeaMaster et al., 1997). Vibrio bacteria have also been shown to be distributed differentially both within host species located in different habitats, as well as in various seasons throughout the water column (Jones et al, 2007; Jones et al., 2006). The effect of fluctuating environments on the growth of non-host associated vibrios has been investigated less, but there are still some intriguing recent findings. For example, saline stress has been shown to affect the quality of organic carbon produced by vibrios
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living in simple, microbial loop foodwebs. This phenomenon affects the quality of carbon available to other trophic levels (Odic et al., 2007). The purpose of this review is to discuss the physiological responses of non-cholera vibrios to stress, especially to stressors likely encountered during symbiosis or during transitions from one host or lifestyle to another. We will also draw connections, wherever possible, among work that addresses vibrios from evolutionary, ecological, and molecular physiological points of view. We refer readers interested in V. cholerae to another recent review (Prouty and Klose, 2006). 2.2. TEMPERATURE Vibrios encounter a broad range of temperatures, from those prevailing in marine habitats, to the higher temperatures tolerated by vibrios that can infect humans. Temperature is a significant determinant in shaping ecological associations of vibrios with countless host organisms, including eels (Amaro et al., 1995; Marco-Noales et al., 1999), squid (Jones et al., 2006; Nishiguchi, 2000), sea bream (Bordas et al., 1996), oysters (Kaspar and Tamplin, 1993), and coral (Rosenberg et al., 2007). For example, V. shiloi and V. coralliilyticus, both pathogens of coral, produce virulence factors implicated in bleaching and killing their hosts. In both cases, the production of these virulence factors is strongly regulated by temperature. At winter temperatures (16-20°C), virulence factors are not produced, while summer temperatures (25-30°C) induce virulence factor production (Rosenberg et al., 2007). Temperature is a critical abiotic factor affecting other pathogenic symbioses, too. For example, chemotaxis is important for virulence of the fish pathogen V. anguillarum, and it is strongly affected by temperature. V. anguillarum is most robustly chemotactic at 25°C, and the chemotactic response diminishes in both cooler (5°C, 15°C) and warmer (37°C) conditions (Larsen et al., 2004). The stationary-phase associated sigma factor encoded by rpoS is required for V. vulnificus to survive heat shock (Hulsmann et al., 2003). An important virulence factor in V. vulnificus is capsular polysaccharide (CPS); CPS production appears to be controlled by a phase variation mechanism that can be detected by examining colony phenotype. Encapsulated cells make opaque colonies, while cps- cells make translucent colonies. Conversion from CPS+ to cps- (from opaque to translucent) is affected by temperature, as increasing the temperature from 23°C to 37°C increased switching for several different isolates (Hilton et al., 2006). Since Vibrionaceae are aquatic microorganisms residing mostly within oceans, which are the largest cold environment on earth (Urakawa and Rivera, 2006) making up 71% of the earth’s surface (Atlas and Bartha, 1998), some members of this group have been extensively selected to thrive in cold temperatures (Bartlett, 2006). Thus, although clinical and human pathogenic Vibrionaceae are mesophilic and capable of growth at ≥37°C, some members of this bacterial family’s ancient lineage have adapted to low temperatures. Examples include Photobacterium profundum, V. logei, V. wodanis, and V. salmoncida. Photobacterium spp. have been more frequently observed to be the more prevalent member of the Vibrionaceae in the cold deep-sea, whereas the genus Vibrio is more common in cold ocean surfaces. These species are capable of growth at ≤5°C. Vibrios such as V. diabolicus, isolated from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent annelid
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Alvinella pompejana, are heat tolerant, but no evidence exists that any member of the Vibrionaceae are thermophilic (Urakawa and Rivera, 2006). Cold shock responses have been studied in V. cholerae, V. vulnificus, and V. parahaemolyticus (McGovern and Oliver, 1995; Bryan et al., 1999; Datta and Bhadra, 2003; Huels et al., 2003; Lin et al., 2004;). Within the later two species, cold shock response increases survival at lower temperatures by a translation-dependent process. Research in this area is particularly important when considering applications of low temperature usage for food storage of shellfish (Bryan et al., 1999). As is generally true of stress responses in microorganisms, cold shock response involves changes in gene expression. Expression of cold shock proteins (CSPs) reach maximal levels during acclimation and includes the up-regulation of several proteins, including small homologous peptides 65-70 residues long in the CspA family (Ermolenko and Makhatadze, 2002). Most studies of the CspA family have been studied in greater detail in bacteria such as E. coli and B. subtilis. Proteins in this family have five antiparallel β strands that form a β barrel, creating a characteristic cold-shock protein domain well conserved throughout all three domains of life. CSPs often bind single-stranded mRNA and DNA, and are believed to assist bacteria in coping with unstable secondary structures at lower temperatures during ribosomal translation, mRNA degradation, termination of transcription, and perhaps nucleoid condensation, thereupon giving CSPs the function of nucleic acid chaperones. Additionally, there may also be a suppression of protein synthesis to prevent miscoding of polypeptides until the cold shock response is initiated (Ermolenko and Makhatadze, 2002). To maintain functional membrane fluidity with decreasing temperature, vibrios are known to increase the unsaturation of fatty acids comprising their cell membranes. Adaptation to a fully psychrophilic lifestyle regularly, but not always, involves a decrease in enthalpy-driven interactions for the catalytic activity of enzymes, increasing the number of functional conformations permitted for enzyme-substrate complexes (Bartlett, 2006). For instance, the amino acid residues of psychrophilic enzymes within the cytosol display additional hydrophilic associations with the solvent, while simultaneously lessening internal hydrophobic interactions. This yields enzymes that are less condensed relative to mesophilic counterparts, which can result by increasing the αhelix and decreasing the β-sheet character of the secondary structure. 2.3. pH STRESS pH stress is ecologically and evolutionarily significant because symbiotic vibrios include some gastrointestinal pathogens that must somehow survive the acidic challenge encountered in the digestive environment. Recently, molecular mechanisms of survival in the face of pH stress have been studied most intensively in the species V. vulnificus. This microorganism is an opportunistic pathogen of humans, acquired by ingesting contaminated seafood. There appears to be multiple overlapping signal transduction networks that together sense and respond to acid challenge. For example, the alternative sigma factor encoded by the rpoS gene is required for V. vulnificus to survive acid stress (pH
